Efeito do metilfenidato no processamento auditivo em crianças e adolescentes com transtorno do deficit de atenção/hiperatividade Effects of methylphenidate in auditory processing evaluation of children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

OBJETIVO: Comparar o desempenho em teste de avaliação do processamento auditivo (PA) num grupo de crianças e adolescentes com transtorno do déficit de atenção e hiperatividade (TDAH) pré e pós-metilfenidato. MÉTODO: Foram aplicados testes comportamentais padronizados de avaliação do PA em 29 indivíduos com TDAH na faixa etária de 7 a 15 anos, de ambos os sexos. Utilizou-se um grupo de comparação de 29 indivíduos sem déficit de atenção, com e sem transtornos de aprendizado. RESULTADOS: O grupo com TDAH apresentou desempenho nos testes de PA semelhante ao grupo controle sem transtornos do aprendizado sendo seus resultados ainda melhores na ocasião pós-medicação. O grupo sem déficit de atenção e com problemas de aprendizagem apresentou o pior desempenho nos testes de PA e o grupo sem déficit de atenção e sem problemas de aprendizagem foi o que apresentou o melhor desempenho. CONCLUSÃO: O teste de PA não permitiu diferenciar portadores de TDAH de controles pareados; o metilfenidato se associou a melhora do desempenho nos testes de PA nos portadores de TDAH.<br>PURPOSE: To compare the performance of a group of children and adolescents diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) pre and post-methylphenidate use in a behavioral auditory processing test battery (AP). METHOD: Twenty-nine subjects, male and female, ranging from 7 to 15 years old have undergone different behavioral auditory processing tests. A control group composed of 29 subjects with and without learning disabilities was also evaluated. RESULTS: The group with ADHD had a performance similar to the control group without learning disabilities which improved after medication. The group with learning disabilities and without ADHD had the worst performance in tests while the group without learning disabilities and without ADHD exhibited the best ones. CONCLUSION: The AP battery was unable to distinguish ADHD patients from paired controls; the use of methylphenidate improved the performance on AP tests of ADHD group in the post-medication evaluation

In vivo immune signatures of healthy human pregnancy: Inherently inflammatory or anti-inflammatory?

Changes in maternal innate immunity during healthy human pregnancy are not well understood. Whether basal immune status in vivo is largely unaffected by pregnancy, is constitutively biased towards an inflammatory phenotype (transiently enhancing host defense) or exhibits anti-inflammatory bias (reducing potential responsiveness to the fetus) is unclear. Here, in a longitudinal study of healthy women who gave birth to healthy infants following uncomplicated pregnancies within the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) cohort, we test the hypothesis that a progressively altered bias in resting innate immune status develops. Women were examined during pregnancy and again, one and/or three years postpartum. Most pro-inflammatory cytokine expression, including CCL2, CXCL10, IL-18 and TNFα, was reduced in vivo during pregnancy (20-57%, p<0.0001). Anti-inflammatory biomarkers (sTNF-RI, sTNF-RII, and IL-1Ra) were elevated by ~50-100% (p<0.0001). Systemic IL-10 levels were unaltered during vs. post-pregnancy. Kinetic studies demonstrate that while decreased pro-inflammatory biomarker expression (CCL2, CXCL10, IL-18, and TNFα) was constant, anti-inflammatory expression increased progressively with increasing gestational age (p<0.0001). We conclude that healthy resting maternal immune status is characterized by an increasingly pronounced bias towards a systemic anti-inflammatory innate phenotype during the last two trimesters of pregnancy. This is resolved by one year postpartum in the absence of repeat pregnancy. The findings provide enhanced understanding of immunological changes that occur in vivo during healthy human pregnancy